A spiritual journey: Whitehall man, 79, completes 500-mile pilgrimage

At 78, Steven Mavin traveled nearly 500 miles across Spain as part of the… (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO )

July 07, 2014|By Jennifer Sheehan, Of The Morning Call

It was a trip filled with symbols: a scallop shell representing the ancient routes through Spain, a bright yellow arrow tacked to trees offering pilgrims direction.

For Steve Mavin of Whitehall Township, the trip itself was a symbol.

Mavin, who just turned 79, in late spring finished El Camino de Santiago, a 500-mile pilgrimage across Spain and parts of France.

Mavin, who has two artificial knees, completed the walk in 32 days.

"The challenge of it was what interested me," says Mavin, who has led an athletic life and prides himself on being active. "It was a challenge to my ego."

Also known as the Way of St. James, the walk has roots dating to a thousand years when Christian pilgrims walked from all over Europe to visit the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in the Basque region of Spain where, according to tradition, the remains of apostle St. James the Great are buried.

Mavin was inspired by the 2010 movie "The Way," which was directed, produced and written by Emilio Estevez and starred his father, Martin Sheen.

In the movie, Sheen plays an ophthalmologist who travels to France following the death of his son who was killed in the Pyrenees during a storm while walking the Camino. Initially he traveled to retrieve his son's body but later decides to walk the ancient spiritual trail where his son died, taking his son's ashes with him.

Moved by the film, Mavin decided to try part of the route in 2012 with a friend from his native England.

"He and I did a 125-mile portion of it, and I thoroughly loved it," Mavin says.

That taste of the Camino wasn't enough for Mavin.

Over the next two years, he kept thinking about going back and doing the whole trek.

"I decided to do it before I got too old," Mavin says.

With his wife's approval, Mavin began to train this spring for the journey, walking in Lehigh Parkway for several weeks. He's a fit guy who works out regularly and has a lifetime of running marathons and a variety of sports experience behind him.

"I didn't train much," Mavin says modestly.

Mavin spent most of his career in marketing. And as many active retired people find, he became itchy to return to work. He now works part time as a transport driver for Miller-Keystone Blood Center in Hanover Township, Northampton County.

"I took five or six weeks off to do the walk," Mavin says. "They were very supportive."

He set off on his journey in mid-April, starting from Saint-Jean-Pied De Port at the foothills on the French side of the Pyrenees, the most popular of many routes that can be taken for the pilgrimage.

At the start of his journey, he received a scallop shell that serves as a symbol of the trip. The shell's lines represent the many routes pilgrims take that all end up at one point, the tomb of James in Santiago de Compostela. He also received a "passport," which was stamped at each stop on his journey.

All he had with him was a backpack with minimal supplies, including two changes of clothes, a pair of sandals, a pair of boots, three pairs of socks, a cap, toiletries and his iPad and phone. He says the backpack weighed about 20 pounds.

"It's your lifeblood at that point," Mavin says pointing out the importance of the pack.

The iPad helped him keep in touch with his wife, who was in England while he traveled. He communicated with her through FaceTime, the Apple video-chat feature, but Wi-Fi was hard to find along his journey.

Mavin didn't use a GPS navigation system or any other gadget to guide his way. He used a guidebook, in which he took some notes, and followed the yellow signs that are seen along the routes of the pilgrimage.

"It was easy to get lost in the cities," Mavin says. At one point, he got about a mile and half off course.

The weather was pretty good for the majority of his trip, Mavin says. Perhaps the worst weather came at the start, when he hit 50 mph winds in mountainous Navarre in northern Spain. The last stretch of the trip was hampered by rain.

He estimates he walked 17 miles a day with no partner. It was a solo journey, which gave him the opportunity to meet and talk with other pilgrims.

"Meeting people is a huge benefit of the trip," Mavin says. "You meet people at every leg. Nobody really stays with you for a long time."

He stayed in hostels (called "albergues") along the way. Some slept a few to a room, other hostels slept dozens, mixing men and women. He enjoyed those stops because they gave him the chance to meet new people.

He never had trouble finding food. Many of the cafes sold "peregrinos," a three-course meal for pilgrims complete with a bottle of wine and water.

"Nothing marvelous but decent food," Mavin says.

Churches, most of which were Catholic, dominated the skyline of his trip. Mavin, a member of the Church of England, doesn't describe himself as religious but was drawn by the spiritual aspect of the pilgrimage.

He did the trip alone purposely. It gave him an opportunity to appreciate the views and think deeply about the journey.